In a world where life plays out like a spontaneous record, arduous toil–whether in school or a nine-to-five–spins ceaselessly like a carousel, holding out until that sweet eventide mark, before whirling again. Life revolves incessantly around one’s ultimate destiny, regardless of whether the liminal state between birth and death was satisfactory to oneself. With so many routes in that interlude, it’s difficult to feel pride on any path. But, by morphing one’s perspective, and viewing life through a different pair of lenses, one can change that. To do that, one must jump or choose.
In a no-cost, mobile game entitled Life is a Game, this idea is embodied through simulating a players’ lifespan from childhood to adulthood. Developed by Studio Wheel on November 14th, 2017, Life is a Game outlines the stages of psychosocial development in a person while placing reins into players’ hands, letting them decide how to navigate through conflict and crisis in their characters’ life cycle.
The concept of the simulator is simple, the player’s character perpetually races through time, performed metaphorically through players literally dashing from room to room, with each room slightly aging them as they evolve with their choices.
With a cartoony pixel style, and vibrant, saturated colors, the game’s visuals vividly seize attention and highlight the beauty in the flourishing essence of life.
Game Walkthrough
Once players decide on a gender, they are instantly plopped into the game as a toddler darting across a decorated nursery. The objective from here on out is to obtain coins that will be floating aloft, obtainable only by jumping. There are different sorts of coins, and the type you decide to collect will make an impact on the player’s abilities and survival.
Each coin has their own displayed icon, as listed below:
1) The baby bottle coin, which provides nourishment; increases happiness.
2) The lightbulb coin, which boosts intellect once nine are collected; increases happiness.
3) The paintbrush coin, which boosts creativity; increases happiness. At least three are necessary for more artistic opportunities.
4) A book [studying coin], pushes a service career (teachers, lawyers, doctors); decreases happiness.
5) A soccer ball [studying coin], pushes a sports career; decreases happiness
6) A stethoscope [studying coin], pushes a medical career; decreases happiness.
7) A musical note [studying coin], pushes a musical career; decreases happiness.
8) A paint palette note [studying coin], pushes an artistic career; decreases happiness.
9) A hotdog coin, which feeds players junk food; decreases happiness.
10) A muscle coin, which gives the players exercise; increases happiness and health.
11) A cigarette coin, which players smoke; decreases happiness and health.
12) A photo album coin, which reminisces players past; decreases happiness and health.
13) A pocket watch coin, marks the end of the game; decreases happiness and health.
Players are provided a log which displays how many of each type of coin they collected. Each coin is abundant, which makes it tempting to collect them all, however, with each coin comes its benefits and drawbacks. For example, studying coins, achievable early on in the game, boosts players towards certain careers, but will decrease their happiness. A drastic decline in players’ happiness can lead to a faster death and unfulfilled life. Players are met with a ‘game over’ once their happiness hits zero. On the contrary, if the studying coin players collect is related to the hobby that they pick (while transitioning into grade school), they will receive a proportional increase in their happiness.
This is symbolic to one’s own world; these studying coins are what is pursued in life, yet when a heavy focus on them, one tends to forget the importance of activities that make them happy. Even so, an education of some form to survive, leaving a balance only one can master.
Another essential detail to factor is that gathering nine of any studying coins will accomplish criteria of specific jobs, as different conditions are required to satisfy different jobs. An example of this would be collecting numerous book and stethoscope coins to become a surgeon.
In order to register these benefits, on the bottom-left side of the screen, players have three pictogram options, each respectively expressing hobby, social development, and family. Once players begin school, they will be able to decide the aforementioned hobby of their choice (music, art, or sports). These can lead into a player’s career field. Picking a hobby is not mandatory, however it is recommended as hobbies increase players’ happiness level. From there on out, the hobby pictogram will illuminate every 8-10 seconds, and using it will help you exercise your hobby.
An integral factor in the simulator is that players must make interactions through choices.
This renders into the players’ social development, which is the second pictogram option. Players will be met with numerous options as one races through rooms, and it is on them whether they will select it or not. These interactions are what improves the players’ relationships, from minor things like talking to peers, to major ones like oratory. There will also be other choices handling other matters, such as picking a partner or buying cars or houses. It is important to note that this is quite literally a running simulator, meaning these choices pass within milliseconds. Players are expected to think quick-wittedly as they place judgement as to what decisions tailor to their expectations, but keep in mind the game’s fast-pace guarantees missed chances.
The third pictogram option, the prioritization of intimacy, can be fulfilled through the choice of proposing once players become young adults. Proposals come arbitrarily, so players’ intimacy with their potential loved ones will not be built up until the day of confession. If the player’s proposal is accepted, they will have a partner whom they will need to interact with. Further on, players will be able to conceive children with their partner. If the player’s proposal is rejected, their happiness is deducted, and the players will be temporarily dejected. Though this will not negatively impact players’ gameplay, it will also not profit it.
With further progression through the game, players will enter the next developmental stage as a young adult. At this stage, players are now able to work at the job they have been building up to with their previous options. Working will give players money, but reduce happiness. This will also unlock the option of eating junk food (through hotdog coins), which, if eaten periodically, will boost happiness levels. However, if seven or more are eaten, players will become overweight, causing them to slow down and struggle to jump (ergo, less coins collected).
In order to balance out the junk food coin, players are provided a muscle coin, which allows them to exercise and improve their health. Players are also provided the opportunity to smoke via the cigarette coin, but this choice will decrease happiness levels. Consequently, smoking seven or more cigarettes will lead to instant death, immediately ending the game. This is a reflection of how adulthood is primarily the phase of life where mindful habits create an undisruptive mind and body.
After numerous essential doors, with differing events based on the job obtained, players are met with another sentimental event: purchasing a vehicle and home. This is where the regular currency that players have been accumulating are majorly consumed. Though only seconds within the game, this phase holds a critical moment in adulthood, mirroring one’s freedom and accomplishment. It is a massive decision that shows the responsibility that one bears.
Following this stage, players will have hit senility, and their jumps will become slowed, jagged, and delayed. Players will unlock two new specialty coins, a photo album, and a pocket watch, which will mark players’ last moments before death.
As players’ health is deducted with each hit from the pocket watch, players will eventually lose their ability to jump, and with it all their health, leading them to their final door, and through it right into their coffin. Players are given one last chance of looking through their photo album before entering their coffin.
Once a player enters their coffin, a funeral commences. The guests at the funeral will depend on the life that players lived.
As the game nears its end, players are given a cutscene, displaying the positives and negatives of their life. All endings differ, but what stands parallel in each is how players are never satisfied with the culmination of their life. Whether it’s criticism about not living an efficient industry-driven life, or being too consumed with work to be active within their family, players will never deem their ending as their happily-ever-after.
So the game rewinds, stopping at critical parts of the player’s life. “What if I had done this differently?” “What if I never proposed to her?” “What if I stuck to my career?” These questions will follow players as they race back through time, until all the doors have been passed through again, and players are right back to the very first door. And then everything repeats. And players are given a second chance. And another. And another.
Evaluation
In the end, Life is a Game doesn’t hand players the perfect life; rather, it hands them a mirror. Like the game, life doesn’t stop to give one time to think. It’s ongoing and real, like a stream of water that endlessly flows. One must take it upon their own hands to determine the weight of their decisions, and do it knowing there is no turning back.
The game reminds one that long-term satisfaction isn’t a phase to be unlocked; it is the accumulation of bad decisions and contending memories. That is why earning a job or getting married never maxed out happiness stats, or low social stats never immediately indicated an unhappy life. A multitude of factors are conjoined, good or bad, to walk ourselves to our end. Yet one can never seem to be satisfied. Life is a Game teaches one the importance of happiness, socializing, intimacy, and family. It teaches one to jump or choose.
In the end, Life is a Game doesn’t hand players the perfect life; rather, it hands them a mirror. Like the game, life doesn’t stop to give one time to think. It’s ongoing and real, like a stream of water that endlessly flows. One must take it upon their own hands to determine the weight of their decisions, and do it knowing there is no turning back.